The Fumes of Mars

Katerina Angelopoulou's The Fumes of Mars is a searing act of personal and collective remembrance, forged in the aftermath of one of Greece's deadliest wildfires. On 23 July 2018, a blaze fuelled by 40°C heat and winds of over 100 km/h tore through towns just 30km from Athens. Over 100 people died. Angelopoulou, visiting a friend's home with her mother and three-year-old daughter, fled by car before being forced to abandon it and take refuge in the sea for hours until rescue. The fire reached the shoreline in little more than 90 minutes, swallowing everything in its path.

- Katerina Angelopoulou

The book resists being just a survivor's memoir. Angelopoulou blends black & white photos of the charred aftermath with harrowing eyewitness testimonies, her own images taken as the disaster unfolded, and a forensic compilation of evidence of aerial maps, topographical data, victim lists, weather and aircraft reports, CCTV stills, media coverage, and extracts from the State Investigator's report. The result is part personal archive, part investigative dossier.